Writing in fits and starts, bits and pieces…

Everyone writes in a different way, and the more we do it the more we find a sort of confidence in what we do… we might still be very self-critical and see faults in what we’ve produced, but we get better at doing the graft – and usually our writing gets better too!

When someone starts writing a novel for the first time, the story might be so clear in their mind, the characters so real, the settings so vivid, the plot intriguing and engaging… and then… the empty page or the empty screen and the keyboard sits there challenging you in an almost malign way. It is daunting! Suddenly the story seems feeble, the characters wooden, the setting dull and as for the plot… what plot, you only have a rough idea after all!

The thing is, it doesn’t have to be written straight off and perfect – it doesn’t even have to be a full length but not very good first draft.  You can start wherever you like, writing in small bits or bites – you can write a particular scene, or part of a particular scene, even if it comes in the middle or near the end of your story. You can describe a character, you can go straight to the exciting part and write that – I bet that will flow off your pen or fly from your keyboard!

There is no defined order in which you write your story, as there is also no defined order in which it has to be told! Your story can be written like pieces of a jigsaw, and fitted together later. Now that we have computers – for those who use them,  reorganising your work is so easy – swap those paragraphs, change the order of the chapters, put that description earlier, delay that revelation… It doesn’t have to be like driving along a motorway, it can be like exploring higgledy-piggledy backstreets of an interesting town!

If you like to set targets, make sure they are easily attainable – this not an endurance test. You know the thing about SMART targets

• specific or significant – I’m going to write about when Tom and Dick met Harry, I’m going to write 200/300/500 words, I’m going to finish chapter 7
•  measurable or meaningful – as above, and did you do it? Did Harry meet Dick and Tom? Did you write that number of words (or maybe a few more?) Is chapter 7 finished?
•  achievable – can you really write two whole chapters or 1500 words? No? then set something you can manage with a little effort – the first part of a chapter, the introduction to the chapter; 500 words or 200 hundred words, something which you really can do.
• realistic – a little bit like achievable, something which you with your present ability and in your current situation and with the amount of time you have to do it – can do it! Will do it!
• time – be realistic, as above, with the time you have. If you are working at the day or the evening or the night job, if you have a family, if you have several children or a baby/babies, if you have others dependent on you, if you can’t choose where you work and have to share a place to work or a computer to work on, if your environment is not conducive because it’s noisy – if any of those things or more apply then the amount of time you have has to be assessed realistically

You can write however you like, there is no one way; if you’re struggling, maybe you should try to write in a different way – there is no right or wrong, only the best for you!